Ruby Torchwick
by Rorksen
Summary: An alternate universe where Ruby has been raised by Roman and she is tasked with infiltrating Beacon academy to facilitate the fall of Beacon. (Looking for cover art)
1. Chapter 1

**Ruby Torchwick**

 _ **Hey guys welcome to my first fan fiction for RWBY, I know this chapter is short and I do plan on doing longer chapters from here on out but I haven't had time yet because I have to revise for my History, Law and Psychology mocks. This also means that updates will not be extremely common for now, after the 22nd they should be a lot more common as I am on Christmas break. Anyway any and all feedback is welcome as I know that I am not the best writer, I mean I only got a five in my English Literature and English Language GCSE's (if I have to ever see any more Shakespeare I will kill everyone on the planet). Right what else, oh yes just to clarify as If it was not already obvious I do not own RWBY it belongs Rooster Teeth.**_

"Summer, you packed yet?" a blonde man shouted.

"Almost Tai, it's kind of hard to pack as bags while holding a 14 month old child...send Yang up to take Ruby off me so I can pack quicker" a dark haired women replied.

The blonde man looked at a young golden haired girl.

"I'll go get her" the girl said. The man nodded his thanks to her and moved over to the window. He looked out and could see the orange glow of what could only be the town burning.

"Shit" he muttered under his breath.

"Summer, forget the bags, the white fang are here already. Take Ruby and Yang and

leave quickly, Qrow will be another fifteen minutes and I can hold them off until then".

The women called Summer ran down the stairs. Summer was short with dark hair that went down to her waist and two wolf ears on her head, her face was small and rounded making her appear younger than she actually was. She was dressed in some black dungarees with a white top underneath it. She also had a white cloak which went down to her knees.

In her arms was a small child.

"No, we are not leaving you Tai, we can tell Qrow to meet us in Kuroyuri and we can run away from the white fang" Summer all but screamed at Tai, the man in question was tall and had short, scruffy blonde hair. He was wearing some brown cargo shorts with a tan dress shirt which was covered by a dark brown leather vest.

"Summer...please" Tai said while scrunching his hand into a fist making his knuckles pure white. Summer simply looked down unable to meet the man's gaze. Suddenly, Summer shouted "fine but if I don't see you in Kuroyuri I will brink you back from the dead just to lecture and kill you all over again" while pointing her left index finger at the man.

"No...please not another lecture" Tai pleaded as he dropped to his knees clasping his hands together as if he was praying to her.

Summer simply smirked and was about to say something when they heard a man shout from outside.

"Come out this instance, this is the white fang and we are taking it from you rotten humans".

Summer and Tai simply looked at each other and nodded their heads.

"I love you" they said in unison.

"Yang with me now" Summer said as she ran to the back door, she was quickly followed by the young girl. Tai simply watched them until they walked out of the door, with sigh he turned to the front door and proceeded to turn the handle and open to the sight of maybe fifty white fang members all dressed in a white sleeveless jacket with a black hood and black pants, their faces were obscured from sight with Grimm masks. Tai simply chuckled while he clicked his knuckles.

"You guys know my wife is a faunus right?"


	2. Summer Rose

_**Hey, guys guess who. Ok don't I had a few hours to kill today in sixth form and as I don't hang out with anyone I thought ni would quickly write a chapter for you. Mainly because I wanted to move on from Summer and actually have a more grown up Ruby that I can mold. Anyway any comments and criticism is fine and if you have any suggestions then please feel free to pm me about them. Also before I forget I would like to ask if anyone can get in touch with me about doing the cover art for this story or if they know anyone who would be willing to do it.**_

Summer turned the handle to the door and left through it followed by Yang.

"Mummy, where are we going?" Yang asked her voice was laced with fear. Summer came to a stop, turned around and bent down being careful not to drop Ruby.

"Kuroyuri, Yang, we should be safe there". Yang's fear did not subside instead it only grew as she could see more white fang members emerging from the forest all walking towards them.

Summer stood up and made sure to keep Yang behind her.

"Stop, do not come any closer or I will make sure every single one of you meets an extremely grisly end" Summer shouted while making sure she did not appear scared and make the white fang think she was an easy target. Right now she knew intimidation was her ally and that they would get scared and stop walking towards them. Sadly luck was not on Summer's side and the white fang did not stop advancing but they were more cautious. Summer turned around and bent down to face Yang once more.

"Yang I want you to run as quick as you can to the East, you will find a town not too far away from here. When you get there ask for the Ren family, they should be able to help" Summer asked making sure to keep her voice low so that the white fang grunts would not hear her.

"What about you and Ruby, Mummy," Yang asked.

"I will be fine, and so will Ruby. I can protect Ruby better than you could at the moment I need you to focus on running as fast as you can so help can come quicker" Summer said in a stern voice.

"I love sweetie".

Yang slowly turned in the direction she was going to run. There was a single faunus blocking her way. As she was about to turn around and ask Summer what she should do, she felt a heat spreading throughout her body, she could tell her hair was starting to glow like a dull fire, she felt stronger and most prominently...she felt very very angry.

The white fang member stood there staring at this little girl who was literally glowing.

"AARRGH!".

The little girl started to charge him while screaming at the top of her lungs. While he would never admit it he was slightly intimidated by this girl. Once she was in the range of the man she slammed her fist into the crotch of the man while doing this she heard a loud pop and the man crumpled to the floor in agony. Yang didn't look back she just kept running with tears in her eyes and with her the light of her hair dulling and her anger being replaced by sadness.

Summer watched Yang running with a proud smile on her face. 'She unlocked her semblance...finally' summer thought to herself. She knew that she could not follow the same path Yang took as the white fang would block her off and they may end up going after Yang. 'I'll have to take a long way around then' Summer planned. Summer looked at all of the white fang members surrounding her. There was a total of ten now that Yang had downed one previously. All of them had swords, seven of them had backswords and they were standing behind her with their hands on the hilts of their swords making sure she could not turn and run, the two white fang members on her sides had falchions. The final member and likely the leader had a large kopis in his right hand. He was directly in front of her and was the only one approaching her.

"Faunus what is your name?" he spoke, his voice was deep and full of malice.

"Summer" she replied making sure her voice did not betray her.

"You have not only held humans as your acquaintance but you have also mated with one. Thus in the name of the white fang and all faunus in Remnant, I sentence you to death by decapitation. If you submit now we will make it quick and care for your child. We will make sure it is raised by good faunus and will learn the righteous ways of the white fang". Summer froze in place once he started talking about Ruby. Her face twisted into a scowl and she slowly walked forward. The leader stepped back a bit in fear of the pure hatred and anger Summer was giving off, he quickly recovered his composure though and stood his ground, his kopis by his side. Once Summer was within arms reach of the leader she lashed out with her fist and hit the man in his neck making him drop to his knees coughing and trying to breathe. Once he dropped Summer ran faster than she ever had before, where she was going she didn't know but she had to protect Ruby.

What Summer didn't realize was that a faunus was watching what Summer did through a scope. While he was watching he was smirking getting ready to fire his sniper rifle with his anti aura bullet. Once he felt he could successfully make the shot he lightly pressed the trigger. BANG. The bullet sailed through the air keeping true to the aim of the white fang member.

Summer was still running when she heard the shot, her faunus senses combined with the many years of hunter training allowed her to dodge albeit only just. When the bullet hit the ground and it caused a large hole to form she realized that the bullets being used were anti aura. Knowing this fact caused her to run even faster, by this point Ruby was screaming and gripping onto Summers collar as if her life depended on it.

"Fuck!" the sniper yelled. He immediately started to load another round into the chamber and started to line up another shot this time he waited a bit longer to take the shot. His finger on the trigger, he held his breath and waited until the wind died down a bit more. BANG. Without even looking at whether he hit Summer he started to load another round but he noticed that he had no more left, instead he chose to radio his squad to tell them to run after her as they were still where Summer left them with the leader on the ground unconscious. Once he put his radio down again he could see the white fang members leaving their leader behind and running after the white cloaked woman.

Summer heard the shot again but this time she was too late. She felt the round pierce her abdomen and hit the ground in front of her. She screamed in pain but carried on running. She knew she could not run for much longer but she had to get to the road and she hoped there would be someone there to help her or at least to take Ruby to safety. After running for another five minutes Summer felt her legs weakening. She could no longer run, she could see the road and hoped that someone would be there to help Ruby. She found a tree near the road and all but collapsed there, she could feel her eyes closing and her heart weakening. 'No...i must stay awake for Ruby' Summer thought to herself. After some time had passed Summer could see two people walking along the road. One was a man and another was a short woman. Summer simply looked to Ruby.

"Goodbye my little rose"


	3. Thus kindly i scatter

A young man no older than 25 walked down the dirt path, he had long ginger hair that reached his shoulder blades and he had dark green eyes. He wore a white dress shirt, black gloves and a wrap of red cloth on his left arm which had a feather tucked into it. Beside him was a short woman of the same age. She had long hair which was split down the middle, the right side was pink with white streaks in it and the left side was brown. Her eyes were similar to her hair with the right eye being a light pink and the left eye is a dark brown. She wore a grey waistcoat and brown pants. Underneath her waistcoat was a black shirt. Both of them walked in silence with no destination in mind.

"Neo, my dear where should we go today. A bit of me want to rob a store but another bit of me just wants to get and sleep in a hotel room" The man said in a calm tone. The girl just looked up at him while they carried on walking.

"You know, either you need to stop being a mute or we are going to have to find a different way to communicate because constant silence is really starting to grind my gears" the man said sarcastically knowing almost nothing on the planet would fix Neo's muteness and certainly nothing on the planet would get him, Roman Torchwick to invest his time to learn sign language or morse code or any other forms of communication. BANG. Both of them immediately looked at each other which confirmed that they had both heard the gunshot.

"Well. Well. Well. It looks like someone is having a party without us. Shall we go check out whether we are invited?" Roman said asked knowingly. Neo simply started to walk in the direction of the gunshot hoping that it would be a hunter that they could rob. After fifteen more minutes of walking and another gunshot, both Roman and Neo came upon a female faunus on the ground holding a child in her arms. She had a cloak on her back that was once white but was know stained red from the large puddle of blood on the surrounding her.

"Please help my...baby," the woman said weakly. Roman and Neo both looked at each other and both of them were thinking the same thing 'what the actual fuck had they got themselves into'.

"Please take her to Kuro…*cough* *cough*...Kuroyuri, her father, and sister should be waiting there" as the women spoke her voice became weaker and as she coughed blood spurted out of her mouth and much to his dismay it covered Roman's pants.

"Please. Her name is Ruby please save her. The...the white fang will be here s..soon" The woman was starting to lose consciousness from the huge loss of blood she had suffered. Roman turned to walk away but he was stopped by Neo holding onto his wrist.

Roman took Neo off to the side and started to whisper to her.

"Neo we cannot take a kid with us even if it is only to Kuroyuri. How do we even know that her father or sister will be there?" Roman sternly said, hoping that Neo would drop it and they could just find a tavern where they could sleep. Neo did not relent, she just kept staring into his eyes, silently begging him to help. After a few seconds of silence Roman spoke to her again,

"Fine" He knew it was the right thing to do but to this day he had not cared about what was 'right' or what was 'wrong', to him the words were a waste of time, all he cared about was that he could and would do to survive. However, he knew how much of a soft spot for kids Neo had and he knew that if he did not help her then she would leave on her own with the child to Kuroyuri.

"Ok, we will take your baby to Kuroyuri and send help for you if you survive". Roman said trying to sound as sincere as possible.

"Th...Th..Thank you, her name is Ruby and she's fourteen months old. Thank...yo…" the words died in the woman's throat along with her. Roman simply looked at the woman as he knelt down and picked up the sleeping child in her arms. The white blanket that it was wrapped in was drenched in so much blood that it looked more black than red. Roman handed the child to Neo.

"So Kuroyuri then?" Neo simply nodded and they both started to walk towards Kuroyuri.

After thirty minutes of walking. Neo and Roman finally saw Kuroyuri. Both of them stopped in their tracks.

"Well, shit" Roman said quietly. In front of Roman and Neo stood Kuroyuri except instead of the sound of birds and buildings stood tall. There was only screams and fire. Many of the building had fallen over or were engulfed in so much fire that they could not last long before they finally fell. Neo stood up and started walking away still clutching Ruby in her hands.

"Neo...Neo" Roman said but she did not turn around and instead carried on walking.

"Neo! What are we going to do" Roman was not surprised by Neo lack of answer, what he was surprised of was the fact that when Neo turned her head to face Roman tears were freely flowing from her face. Roman just stood still as Neo resumed walking away.

"You know if there is a god out there then you really just like to fuck with me don't you". Roman muttered in defeat as he began to jog after Neo. When he caught up to her he put a hand on her shoulder and smiled at her once she looked at him. Both of them carried on walking along the path wondering where they would go from there.


	4. The fake heist for a fake man

_**OK, guys, I am back with another chapter, I just wanted to tell you that there has been a time skip from the last chapter, it is to take Ruby up to being 15. Also just wanted to reiterate if anyone is interested or knows anyone who is interested in doing the cover art for this story then I would be really thankful, if you can get in touch we can talk about it. I do want to add I know this is a large time jump and that some of you may feel as though it will prevent a bit of characterisation for the characters so I would just like to say I do plan on writing all about the years before this through the eyes of Roman and Neo as they try to raise Ruby however, it will likely be its own story so that I can actually get to the main story of this fan fiction. Also just to let you know in this story Remnant only has roughly 2 million people in it.**_

A young girl was stood on the edge of a rooftop. She was wearing a white high-neck décolletage blouse with a black and red skirt, she also wore a black overbust corset. On top of that, she had a black belt that had red borders, this belt also had magnetic strips designed to hold her weapon and ammo clips. Her legs were covered with black thigh high stockings that reached just below the hem of her skirt, most notably, however, was the black cloak she wore, it reached from her shoulders to the ground and the cloak had a slim hood attached to it. This hid the girls short and scruffy dark hair which to a dark red at the tips. On top of her head sat a pair of red-tipped wolf ears. Her eyes were a bright silver and currently, they were staring through the scope of a red sniper rifle at a high-end jewellery store.

"Red...you in position?" a voice crackled over her radio.

"Yes dad" the girls replied without taking her eyes off of the store.

"Code names Red, while I do trust you and Ice cream to fully encrypt our channels I don't want to take any chances" the radio replied.

"Did I say your name? I doubt any cop would be able to figure out your identity just by me referring to you as dad, there has to be at least a half a million people on the planet who get called that, What are they going to do...arrest everyone who gets called dad by someone?" the girls said her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"...It's the principle that counts if you plan on actually making it big in this industry then you need to learn the basics" the voice on the radio replied adamantly.

"Sounds to me like you are just looking for an excuse for when you get caught 'cause you got sloppy again," the girl said with a large grin on her face.

"Back the matter at hand. Operation 'rob a jewellery store so we can eat' is a go" the voice over the radio said. Once the voice over the radio ended the girl stopped looking through her scope and look over at a tablet next to her with a big red button on it. She pressed the button and returned to her original position. She could see, through her scope, that the metal shutters covering the windows and doors of the jewellery store immediately started to pull up and the lights inside the store all flickered on.

Roman Torchwick was watching the shutters rise up with a radio next to his head. 'That's my girl' he thought to himself. Roman looked different now to how he did in his earlier years, his once very long hair was no kept a bit shorter and swept off to the side of his face and instead of a white dress shirt and grey pants he now wore a white suit with black pants. Gone was the red cloth that held a feather instead he had a black bowler hat which had the old feather tucked into the red band of the hat. He also now had a black cane, whether he needed it or not no one knew. He tucked the radio into his pocket and started to walk forward towards the jewellery store. Behind him followed ten men all dressed in black suits with bright red ties and all of them carried a gladius and a pistol on their hips.

The girl looked through her scope at the jewellery store. Suddenly she saw some movement, a security guard.

"Shit! Dad, there's a guard in the back" She said into her radio. Roman who was just reaching for the door as she said that immediately froze. There shouldn't have been anyone in there now. They had cased this place for three weeks and not once had they saw a guard in there.

"Red...can you take the shot," Roman said into his radio.

"Yes" the radio replied

"Take it then" Roman once again said into his radio.

BANG

Roman heard three sounds. The bang of sniper rifle being fired, the sound of glass shattering and finally the sound of a body hitting the ground.

"Ok you nine wait in here, Lewis you come in with me I need someone I can trust" Roman ordered.

What Roman did not notice though was that once inside Lewis immediately made sure he was in a place where 'Red' could not see him but he could still see Roman. Once he found that spot he silently his gun out of its holster and pointed it at Roman.

"Roman. As a member of the Atlas police force I order you to surrender all weapons and come with me quietly, we have a nice cell just for you and because I am nice you can bring your friends here and they can join you" The man shouted still pointing his gun at Roman.

Roman simply turned around and smiled.

"Oh, Lewis did you really think you were so secretive when you were feeding information back to your cop buddies or when you would meet up with your Chief superintendent at the cafe every Tuesday. How stupid do you think I am. Oh but don't worry my little girl will deal with your Chief superintendent and the other officers who were on this case. Actually, I think she left to do that as soon as you pulled a gun on me" throughout Roman's little speech the undercover cop was getting angrier with each word coming out of Roman's mouth. And as the cop got angrier Roman's mouth turned more and more into a smug shit eating grin.

"Well I have back up with me and they will be here any second now" at this point the man was practically spitting every word due to his anger.

"Oh yes, the back up I almost forgot to tell you about them," Roman said feigning shock that he forgot something.

"What do you mean you forgot to tell me"

"Oh, I thought it would have been obvious…You have no doubt heard 'Red' call me dad. Well if I am the daddy bear who is momma bear" Roman's grin grew even more, which the cop did not even think was possible.

"Neo, my dear would you care to reveal yourself as you have no doubt already killed all the 'backup'" as Roman started speaking a small woman suddenly appeared next to him. As soon as Neo appeared the cop started to visibly shake. Roman looked towards Neo and simply nodded his head and then he walked off into the back room. Neo then started to walk towards the cop until she could feel his breath on her. He opened his mouth to speak but no words came out.

Once Roman entered the back room he started to look around. It was a rather small room and almost every surface was covered in documents ranging from the bank asking about payments for loans or utility companies threatening to cut off electricity to the store if they weren't paid. The only surface that was kept immaculately clean and had no documents on it was a tall black safe. As Roman started to walk towards it he could hear the cop's blood-curdling scream.

"Neo if you don't mind can you keep it quiet out there I need to crack a safe and I would rather not use explosives again" Roman called out, he wasn't sure if Neo heard him over the screaming until he heard the crack of a neck turning 360.

"Thank you" Roman called out again. Then he bent down so his head was level with the safe's lock and he began to work.

Once 'Red' heard Roman speaking to the cop, the young girl stood up and clicked a button on her rifle which made it turn into its travel mode. The girl hooked it onto the magnetic strips on the back of her belt. She then proceeded to activate her semblance and she simply vanished leaving behind black and red rose petals. In reality, she did not vanish instead she ran, she ran so fast that to the naked eye she simply vanished. It did not take her long to traverse across the rooftops and after ten minutes of running, she came to a stop near the docks. Her eyes scanned the sea until they found what they were looking for. A boat, or more precisely a Victoria del Mar motor yacht. The yacht belonged to the mayor of Vale and tonight he was throwing a grand party to celebrate him getting re-elected. However, tonight the mayor was not the target. No, the target was the Chief superintendent and Red was currently searching for her. First, she checked the bow of the ship where the mayor was giving a speech about how shocked he was that he won, of course, it was all fake shock he had paid Roman a lot of money to make sure he got re-elected. Moving out of her thoughts Red once again started searching for the chief superintendent but she was not on the bow. Ceasing her search for the bow she moved so she could see the stern.

"Bingo" it did not take Re long to find her, she was the only person there and she was talking to someone on the phone. The superintendent was pacing back and forth screaming at someone on the phone. Red did not care, she had learnt not too. She waited until the superintendent stopped moving and positioned her crosshair on the chest of the superintendent.

Bang!

Red could see the superintendent collapse to the floor. Red got up and took out her radio.

"It's done," Red said.

"Perfect. Now meet us back at home then" Roman's voice called out.

"Race?" Red said in a chipper voice

"Fine but you already know you will win" Roman replied. Red did not wait to reply she simply sped off in the direction of home.

Roman was sat in an old bullhead on the way back home. Neo was beside him and sleeping quietly. Silently he stood up and walked to the observation area which was just a part of the bull head's wall that had a large window. From here he could see a well-used dirt track cutting through a dense forest. The dirt track led from Vale to Atlas or was it the other way around Roman could never remember nor did he care enough to try. While the forest was dense and extremely hard to see through from above it was not impossible to see some structures on the ground if you knew what to look for and Roman knew exactly what he was looking for. He could see it now, not too far away you could just about make out the outline of a wooden cottage next to a steel warehouse. The cottage was only small and in front of it was a large camp where people were milling about moving boxes or talking. Of Course, no one here was a good person, no the people here were thieves, killer and everything else. Roman would feel comfortable betting all of his cigars on the fact that every single crime that could be committed had been committed by the people here. When Roman had first started this camp of criminals he had wanted it just to protect Red, his adopted daughter, it had quickly grown into a small passion project for him to work on building up. He knew it was not the largest camp of criminals, that belonged to the Raven of Mistral camp, he was still proud of what he had built. The bullhead finally touched down and at the front end of the camp. The hangar door opened and Roman walked down the ramp that extended. Once the ramp touched the ground Roman could see Red lying down on the ground facing away from him with her hood up. A grin quickly covered his face as he silently moved towards her trying to make sure she did not wake up and notice him as he took his left index finger and put it into is mouth coating it in his saliva. He bent down and went to put the finger into her left ear. Suddenly the girl vanished leaving behind a few black and red rose petals. He immediately stood up ramrod straight.

"Little Red, didn't mean to wake you," He said in an innocent voice as he turned around to see Red with her compact sniper pointing at his face.

"Little Red. Really we aren't on a mission so you can use my real name, you know that." Red replied staring into Roman's eyes.

"Ugh, fine Ruby. One question do you understand the irony of you shouting at me for calling you Red instead of Ruby" Roman said.

"What irony?" Ruby said curiosity barely hidden in her voice. Roman opened his mouth to explain but he shut it quickly once he looked behind Ruby to see an extremely angry Neo walking towards him. Roman knew almost immediately what he had done, or more accurately what he had forgotten to do. He had forgotten to wake Neo when the bullhead had landed.

"Heeeeeeeeey Neo how you doing. You have a good sleep" Roman said rapidly hoping to find an excuse to leave. Neo just kept on walking towards him paying no attention towards Ruby. Once Neo had gotten close to Roman her hand swung out and smashed into Roman's face. Roman stumbled back a bit while he tried to rebalance himself.

"Hey Mum," Ruby said to Neo as she jumped at her holding her hand out for a hug. Neo simply stepped to the side causing Ruby to fall straight to the ground. Once Ruby stood back up, Neo started to move her hands into different positions. Ruby was raised by Neo so she immediately knew that Neo was using sign language.

'Hey hun, how did your little side mission go?' Neo signed

"It was alright nothing too difficult which made it a bit boring. Oh, I did manage to break my record for the distance I have shot at" Ruby said as she clicked her back.

'That's nice, what is your new record?'

"I think it was just over 4,000m this time. Still, a bit bummed I didn't get to use crescent rose fully" Ruby said sounding disappointed as she said the last part.

'I am sure you can get some practice in with the new guys later' Neo replied.

Now that Roman had fully recovered Neo turned towards him.

'I thought I told you always wake me up when we land I don't like landing while asleep it hurts my shoulder!'

"I know, I know, I just forgot". Roman held his hands up while he apologised. Eventually, though they found their way into his pocket to his cigars. He brought one up to his lips and lit it with his lighter. He heard the sound of gears moving and he cursed in his head as he saw the blade of a massive scythe cut his cigar in half.

"I thought I told you no more smoking. It's bad for your health!" Ruby all but screamed at Roman. Roman knew he had to choose his words carefully now as Ruby was still holding her scythe.

"I will admit that they are bad for my health but so is getting shot at so at the end of the day does it really matter" Roman dropped the end of his cigar and immediately felt bad for his fallen friend. 'I'm sorry my friend, I did want to smoke you but it appears it was not meant to be between us. Goodbye, old buddy.

"Yeah well if I find you smoking again I will show you how bad my baby, Crescent Rose, can be for your health," Ruby said while loading a shell into the rifle with an innocent smile plastered on her face.

 _ **Ok, guys really quick there is an important poll up on my profile right now about the relationship between Neo and Roman I need to know how you guys would feel. If I get no response I will write their relationship how I feel at the time of writing. OK, thanks for reading and I will hopefully have another chapter out before Christmas day because my mocks are over, for me anyway. See you guys then.**_


	5. A risky proposal

Roman was alone in a back room of the warehouse, the room was rather bare with only a desk which had papers and a computer on it. Roman was currently using the computer to try and find out where he could hit next to actually get a decent amount of cash since the previous escapade was not as fruitful as he had hoped. Roman gave up looking for anything today and lent back in his chair while letting out a large yawn. 'One big one, that all I need then I can stop and settle down with Neo and Ruby' Roman thought to himself. Roman absent mindedly reached out for his cup of tea but when he brought it to his lips he found that it was empty. With a heavy sigh, Roman stood up to leave his office and head to his bed in the cottage.

' _Knock knock'_

"Come in," Roman said not even trying to hide how tired he was. Once Roman stopped speaking the door opened and a man with dark orange hair and turquoise eyes stood there.

He was dressed simply in a white dress shirt with the sleeves turned up above his elbows, he wore a simple set of dark blue jeans.

"Odin, what do you want?" Roman said his frustration made clear by the tone of his voice.

"My my. What do we have here. Roman Torchwick shouting at his men for simply doing their job"

Roman tore his eyes from Odin and looked past him to see a woman with ashen black hair and bright amber eyes. She wore a dark red shoulder-less v-neck mini dress with golden patterns along the top and down the sleeves. Roman immediately felt more stressed at seeing this woman and he didn't know why.

"Yeah well when everything you want is so close you could touch it but each time you try to catch it, it runs away and shits on your tea, you might get a bit snappy".

"I'm gonna go ahead and leave her to you Roman, I'll see you tomorrow," Odin said as he started to walk away not even waiting to hear Roman's reply.

"Right...well I did not come here to hear you rant about your life. My boss has a proposition for you, would you like to know what it is?" The woman asked as she lent on one leg and crossed her arms.

"OK. Two questions then, number one: what is the job? Two, what do I get from it?" As Roman was speaking his right hand reached into his pocket and pulled out a cigar. Once he finished speaking he shoved it into his mouth and pulled out his lighter from his inner breast pocket and lit the cigar.

"Well to answer your second question my boss is offering to pay you a very large sum of lien if you join us." The woman's voice did not fluctuate at all while she was speaking.

"What about my first question?"

"Sadly we cannot tell you that until you join us"

"How much exactly?" While Roman did not like the sound of doing a job for someone he did not know especially as he would not even know what he would be doing until he accepted the offer.

"Over 5 billion lien" Once the woman had finished her sentence Roman felt like he nearly had a heart attack at hearing how much he would get paid, it did raise a concern for him though, every decent job had a level of risk the reflected the level of pay. The higher the risk the higher the pay. He had never done a job with a level of risk the equalled over a hundred thousand lien, not because he did not want to try something so risky but purely because barely any jobs existed that would warrant such pay, the only time he had seen anything go over a million was treason against the country.

"How risky will it be for me and my family?" Roman asked making sure not to let worry seep out through his voice

"It depends really...if you are smart and careful and don't fuck up. Then you should be extremely safe from the law...but if you fuck up and leave traceable clues then not only will the risk be high from the law but my boss will also happily remove you from the face of Remnant along with this entire camp" The woman said with the threat being spoken with extra smugness. Roman's brain immediately started working in overdrive. _'If I take up this job it will set me up for life but it could easily go wrong, the police could find out and with the price tag, this mission has I will likely be put to death...Ruby and Neo could be put to death if I fail. Wait, what the fuck am I saying. I am Roman fucking Torchwick and I do not fucking fail at a job and I never have...as long as you ignore the first few years of my criminal years'._

 _"-Fine, I will take you up on your offer. So what am I doing?" Roman asked._

 _The woman for the first time since her appearance actually looked shocked, probably because she did not expect it to be this easy. Her shock was quickly wiped from her face as she started to think about how to proceed._

 _"Well, then shall we discuss this in your office or here in the doorway of your office?"_

 _"Oh yes. Please come inside" As Roman said this he moved from the doorway and allowed the woman in._

 _Neo was stood in the hallway of her house tapping her foot angrily, in front of her was Roman who looked highly intimidated by the small woman._

" _You. Chose a job with that level of risk!" Neo signed, her movements were aggressive and anybody could tell that she was not just angry, she was furious._

" _look Neo. You don't even know what the job is" Roman was holding his hands up defensively and he was visibly sweating._

" _I don't need to know what fucking job is" After saying Neo brought her hand to her face and started to massage her temples an outsider would say that Neo seemed to calm down but Roman knew that actually she was still just as mad but was restraining herself from going on a deadly rampage that would easily halve the population of the camp. Before Neo continued to sign she gave out a very large sigh._

" _What was the job then?" Neo inquired._

" _Well. They want me and you to help them with their quest to completely...destroy Beacon academy" As Roman finished his sentence Neo visibly started to shake with anger._

" _Look all we will be doing is robbing dust stores and organising some of the 'infantry' that they will use to attack Beacon. We won't do much else" Roman said in his last sentence being said in a more hushed tone. Neo took a moment to consider her decision on it, Roman had to hold a smile back, not very long ago Neo would jump at the chance to cause mass chaos with him but since Ruby had come into their lives Neo had become much more 'sensible' and less chaotic with her decisions and she would now rationalise whether something was worth it. It was at this point as well her foot started to tap on the floor._

" _Wait a second. What do you mean 'much else'?" Neo questioned with her eyebrow raised._

" _Well they have also asked for me and you to hijack a carrier during the attack"_

" _Whose ship?" At this point, Neo's foot-tapping started to pick up the pace._

" _General Ironwoods" As Roman said this Neo's foot stopped mid-tap. Roman was the surprised by Neo's face, it did not look angry, It looked torn. Torn between eagerness to cause chaos, hesitance to risk all they had against such high risks and Roman even thought he saw what looked like vengefulness in her face._

 _Time seemed to slow for Roman as silence filled the room with only the ticking of a clock in the background._

 _"Fine. But Ruby but Ruby will not be involved in any way" Neo signed. Roman immediately let out a breath of air that he did not realise he was holding._

 _"Thank you," Roman said as he took a step towards Neo._

"What for?" Neo asked as Roman enveloped Neo in a hug.

"No killing me and everyone else here in the most brutal way you could think of" Once Roman finished speaking Neo gave out a silent chuckle.

"FAMILY HUG!" A new voice screamed. As Roman heard the new voice he and Neo were immediately hit by a small body that wrapped its arms around them both. This impact caused Roman and Neo to fall to the ground.

Neo lifted her head to see Ruby now clinging to her and Roman with a smile plastered on her face. Neo then felt a tapping on her shoulders, when she looked at the source of the tapping, she could see Roman face was now a bright red.

"Neo...your knee…currently crushing my balls" At this Neo moved her knee and stood up along with Ruby, Roman then proceeded to curl into a ball before trying to drag himself away. Neo then tapped Ruby's shoulder to grab her attention.

"He's such a drama queen" Neo signed and this caused Ruby to chuckle.

"Ruby can you do us a favour since me and your dad will be very busy for a while"

"Sure what you need me to do"

"Can you go to the city and stop by some of the dust stores there and case them out for us?"

"Sure". 


	6. The Dusty Man

_**Hey, guys, it's me. I know the majority of you will not read this but to those that do I would like to apologise for the short length of the previous chapter. I am not going to sugar coat it, I hated writing every single part of that chapter and I would have loved to not include it but I felt that I needed to include it. It is partially because of this that it came out so late as when I would go to write I got bored very quickly and would procrastinate, I also had a bad case of writers block and it took me a while for everything to form into place and while I did have a break from school that just meant I could do more shifts at work and when you are getting minimum wage for under 18s (£4.05) you take any shifts you get offered. And finally, I would like to explain that in my story 1 lien equals £1. OK, now I am done rambling we can get into the story.**_

 _ **I would also like to start a new thing where I will give you guys a fan-fiction recommendation, it will only be RWBY related ones, each time I post a chapter (should be every Monday). So to start us off this week I will recommend you 'Let Me Hear' by TotoTail.**_

Ruby was dressed in her usual attire and was walking down the street, the sun had set by this point but the street lamps had not yet turned on. It didn't matter much to her though as she could easily see her destination partially thanks to her Faunus heritage giving her the ability to see in the dark and also because the store had a big illuminated sign that said 'The Dusty Man'.

"Wow. And I thought from Dust until Dawn was a shitty name" Ruby muttered to herself. As she approached the front door she slipped her headphones onto her head to make it seems like she was listening to music and give her an excuse to ignore the shopkeeper if they tried to speak to her, of course, the shopkeeper would not know that they were not connected to anything and so would actually not play any sound. As she walked in her eyes had to take a moment to adjust to the extremal bright lights in the store. The shopkeeper was at the till reading a magazine about cars, Ruby made him out to be in his late 30's. He had greying hair that you could tell was once a light brown, he also had a messy beard that dipped below his shoulders and he had long hair to go along with it. His skin was tanned and he wore thin rounded glasses that his light blue eyes. Ruby then headed to the back of the store where she could stay out of site and look for cameras and other security devices in a more incognito manner. Once she was at the back of the store Ruby spotted a weapon magazine rack with pictures of weapons that even she had not seen before. Her mind immediately became distracted as she picked up the magazines and started to read, completely forgetting why she came into the store.

Regardless of the fact that Ruby was completely engrossed in her magazine, it did not stop her from hearing the door being opened, closed and then locked.

"If you even think of calling the cops we will simply kill you and rob all of the dust, if you don't call the cops then you can live but we will still steal all of your dust" Ruby heard the voice but could not see the source of the voice. After the man finished speaking Ruby heard the smashing of the display cases that were full of dust. Ruby took a moment to contemplate how she would handle the situation, 'It seemed like mum and dad need as much dust as possible for their job. Well, I guess this means that I need to handle it myself'. After she finished her thought Ruby connected her headphones to her scroll and turned on her playlist, as the music loaded she turned up her volume as high as it would go and pulled up her hood. Once her music turned on Ruby mentally cursed her Faunus enhanced hearing which amplified the volume of the music to the point of causing pain.

Over by the counter, one of the thugs named James started to hear loud but muffled music coming from the back of the store.

"Hey boss should I go check it out," James asked his leader. His 'leader' was dressed the same way as everyone else, wearing a black jumper along with black trousers with a black ski mask covering his face.

"Yeah go on. Make it quick though I can't be arsed spending all night here because you took your sweet fucking time". Once the leader finished speaking James started making his way towards the back of the store. As he got closer to the back the music got louder and a short black cloaked and hooded figure.

"Hey, hands up" The hooded figure did not move at his words. It took James a few more seconds to realise that the music was coming from the hooded figure. 'How the fuck are they not deaf by this point' James thought. James then moved towards the figure and grabbed their shoulder before forcefully turning them around. Once he had turned the figure round, knocking the headphones off of their head in the process, James could see that the figure was a teenage girl.

"Hands up and try anything stupid," James said putting as much authority in his voice.

"Are you robbing this place?" The girl asked.

"Yes. Now can you put your hands up and move to the front of the store".

"That's gonna be a problem," The girl said out-loud as if forgetting James' presence next to her.

"Well It won't be a problem if you will just move to the front of the store for me" James was getting frustrated now.

"I can tell you why it's a problem if you want," The girl said in an innocent voice. Her hands were holding each other behind her back and she lightly tapped the tip of her boot into the ground while looking up at James.

"Fine why is it going to be a problem" He decided to humour the girl. Instead of a verbal reply, the girl merely signalled for him to come a bit closer. Seeing no danger in doing so James lent down so his face was next to the girls.

"It's a problem because I was here first" As these words left the girls mouth James felt a force hit his throat lifting him off of his feet and slamming him into the ground by his neck.

"Because I was here first" As Ruby said this last part she lent towards him slightly and moved her hand to the man's neck. Once her hand was on his neck she pushed off her feet using her semblance, super speed, and took the man off of his feet and then she used her grip on his neck to slam him into the ground. There was a loud thump but it did not appear like anyone else heard what happened. Ruby then took her scroll out of her pocket and turned off the music. She then folded her headphones up and slipped them into her pocket. Ruby had no time to plan though as she saw another thug coming around the corner, likely wondering what was taking his friend so long.

"Well fuck doing it stealthily," Ruby said as she quickly pulled out Crescent Rose and fired off a single shot which hit the man straight in the chest. While the man stumbled back a bit from the shot Ruby quickly check what ammo she was using and quietly cursed herself when she realised she did not take out the dummy practise rounds after she went through customs at the airport. She then immediately rushed to the man using her semblance and jumped landing squarely on his chest. Ruby heard the cracking of the man's ribs as she hit him. Both Ruby and the man smashed through the glass window and landed on the street outside. Ruby quickly gathered her thoughts and stood up. As she stood up Ruby pulled her hood up while clicking a button on Crescent Rose which caused it to change forms from a compact sniper rifle into a large and menacing scythe. Now Ruby could see everyone. She could see that there were seven men in total, one was the shopkeeper, five were thugs and the finale man seemed to be the leader of the thugs. 'Too easy'. Once Ruby was fully stood up and Crescent Rose was fully extended she stabbed the point on the bottom into the ground and lent on it. The leader of the group seemed to take Ruby's nonchalance of the situation as a direct insult.

"Attack!" The leader yelled startling his men who seemed to be in a daze before. After a second all of the men charged towards Ruby. Ruby quickly checked whether they were armed and notice that three of the men had baseball bats while the remaining two seemed to only have knuckle dusters.

The leader stayed in the shop with his arms crossed and a smug look on his face. The five thugs soon surrounded Ruby. One of the men armed with a bat charged Ruby from her left. She simply let him get close and then jumped onto Crescent Rose and then she spun on top to bring her boot into the man's face. He quickly crumpled to the floor from the force of the kick and it was unlikely that he would get up again. Ruby then landed on the ground and pulled the scythe out from the ground. She then spun around with the scythe fully extended outwards from her body. The head of the scythe caught two people and they were quickly pulled along until Ruby stopped spinning and they went flying across the street where they would lie unconscious. Ruby then stabbed the scythe back into the ground and switched the dummy ammo cartridge for a regular ammo cartridge Once this was done Ruby quickly fired off three shots. All of them hit their marks, one of the men's knee and both of his arms, this completely disabled the man from fighting any more as he bled out on the floor. The final man quickly held his hands up and crouched down on his knees. Ruby pushed a button on her scythe to return it to its compact state. Once it was back to its compact form Ruby walked up to the man and slammed her weapon down onto the man's head. There was an extremely loud crack and the man fell down to the floor in a heap. Ruby then moved her head from looking at the man's crumpled form at looked at where the leader was previously standing. Ruby quickly looked down both sides of the street but could not see the leader. Not wanting him to get away Ruby closed her eyes and fully focused on her enhanced hearing. After a little time passed Ruby could now hear the light sound of running feet. Ruby immediately took off in the direction of the noise. After a minute of running, without the use of her semblance, Ruby could see the leader at the top of a ladder. Ruby pulled out Crescent Rose and took aim at him. Before she could fire a shot the leader disappeared over the top of the ladder. Ruby quickly extended Crescent Rose and pointed the tip behind her before jumping off the top of the blade and firing the built-in gun which had more than enough recoil to push Ruby to the top of the roof.

Once on the roof, Ruby could see the leader with his back to her and he was about to jump over to the next building until Ruby moved Crescent Rose and fired a warning shot past the leader.

"Can you stop for a fucking second. I may be fast but I would rather not be chasing you all night long." The leader stopped at this already accepting that he could not outrun Ruby. The man then held up his hands above his head and calmly walked towards the edge of the roof.

"It wasn't meant to go like this, you were meant to leave beat up my men but not follow me." After the leader finished speaking he gave out a loud sigh and tilted his head up to look at the sky. While he did this Ruby pulled her hood down.

"What do you mean it wasn't meant to go like this? And more importantly, could you step away from the edge before you fall" Ruby said. In the distance, you could hear the growing sound of police sirens.

"I've already said enough, I would rather she didn't find out we had this conversation. And why should I walk away from the edge just for you to kill me. Do you think I don't know who you are? You realise in the criminal underworld you are called the Red Reaper" The man said edging even closer to the edge. Ruby was also slowly taking steps towards him keeping her hands in front of her, as far away from Crescent Rose as she could get them.

"I have not killed that many people and I have. Never. Enjoyed. Taking. A. Life." Ruby said practically spitting the last part. Ruby hated being known as a killer, throughout her short life it had followed her like a dark cloud, it stopped her from being allowed to hang out with the other kids in the camp. Even some people in the camp would look at her and avoid her, it was part of the reason she had the cape, not only was it meant to keep people from seeing her face but it was also meant to stop her from seeing the people who would look at her with disdain or pity.

"I have never killed someone just for the hell of it. I have only done so when they have been a threat to me or my family" Ruby said, whether she was trying to convince herself or the leader nobody would ever know.

"That's all well and good but even if I survive tonight I will be dead in the morning or worse. I would rather get it over with" At that the man jumped down the building. While Ruby did not see him land she clearly heard the sound of his body hitting the floor. With that Ruby pulled up her hood and started to walk to the ladders. One thought lingered in her mind though, 'what did he mean when he said it wasn't meant to go this way'.

Once Ruby reached the bottom of the ladder she made a conscious decision to head back home as with the amount of police in the area would have increased and shops would be much more weary for a short while. As Ruby went to walk away she heard a someone cough. Ruby almost immediately jumped into the sky out of fear.

"JESUS FUCKING CHRIST! Who the..." Ruby's voice died off as she saw who she was talking to. Once Ruby stopped speaking she instantaneously appeared next to the woman causing her to jump back a bit. The woman was middle-aged and had light blonde hair that was tied back in a bun with a small curl of hair hanging down the side of her face in front of her green eyes and glasses. She wore white, pleated top with a black high waist pencil skirt with bronze buttons.

"You're Glynda Goodwitch aren't you?" Ruby said her voice gaining in pitch as she spoke.

"Yes, I am" Glynda sighed as she rubbed her temples from a headache she was starting to get. Ruby clasped her hands together in front of her and Glynda could have sworn she saw stars in her eyes.

"I love Hunters and Huntresses. How many grim have you killed? Can you show me you semblance? How many other Hunters do you know? Do you enjoy killing grim?" Ruby asked Glynda only stopping when Glynda put her hand over Ruby's mouth.

"No. More. Questions. Just come with me, there is someone who would like to speak with you" Glynda told Ruby her tone making sure Ruby understood that she had no choice in the matter.

Ruby was lead to the interrogation room at the nearby police station. Ruby noted how all of the lights, bar one, had been turned off leaving the room in almost complete darkness except for the light directly above Ruby. Ruby then moved on to observe Glynda who was lecturing Ruby about how she should be punished.

"Do you know how many people you put in danger today with your actions?" Glynda asked while slamming her riding crop onto the table.

"No actually. Could you tell me who was put in danger other than myself? While you could make a case that the shopkeeper could have been injured he was already in the shop and if I wasn't there he would have still been robbed and possibly killed so you can't be talking about him. I am in the same situation as the shopkeeper as if I did not act then I would have been taken as a hostage and who knows what could have happened to me then. The robbers put themselves in danger by entering the shop and doing what they did and there was no one on the streets so I don't know who you are talking about. Everyone I know was already in danger" Ruby said staring straight into Glynda's eyes hoping that saying that would make sure that there was no way for anyone to think that she was scouting out the location. Glynda looked like she was about to reply until the sound of laughter could be her outside the door. After a minute or so the door opened and a pale white man walked in. His hair was messy and silver in colour, his eyes were hidden behind shaded, thin glasses. He had an unfastened black suit over a buttoned-up vest that covered a green shirt. In his left hand was a mug and in his right hand was a tray full of cookies. Tucked under his left armpit was a cane. As he walked in he looked at Glynda who just scowled back. He then looked away and kept giggling to himself which caused Glynda's scowl to grow. He proceeded to sit down in the only other chair in the room.

"May I ask for your name?" He said while quirking one eyebrow higher than the rest. Ruby waited for a bit before deciding to answer him so she could leave sooner.

"Ruby"

"Just Ruby?" He said before taking a small sip from his mug.

"Yes, just Ruby," she said knowing that if she told him her second name then it would raise alarm bells in his head.

"What you did was courageous tonight and I would like you to know that I admire what you did even if my colleague would rather me sit here and yell at you," Ozpin said a small smirk forming at his face when he started talking about Glynda.

"Well thank you mister Ozpin," Ruby said. At the mention of his name, Ozpin's eyebrow rose once more.

"You know my name?" Ozpin said feeling slightly put off that someone knew his name, he usually kept out of the limelight and many people did not even know what he looked like.

"Well you described as your colleague and I would say you are in a higher position than her due to the fact that when you entered the room she took a backseat and you don't look like any other huntsmen I know about and I know a lot of them and also the fact that you have a cup with the logo of Beacon academy on it which would lead me to presume you have ties to that school. All of that points to you being the headmaster" Ruby said while looking down at her lap. Ozpin simply looked towards Glynda and gave a smirk and a nod.

"That's rather perceptive of you Ruby and I am glad that you are as it saves me having to go through all of the introductions" As Ozpn said this he pushed the plate of cookies towards Ruby. She looked up to Ozpin, he gave her a nod and Ruby picked up one of the cookies and swallowed it hole. Soon after this, she started to lessen the number of cookies on the plate at a shockingly quick pace. Ozpin was about to tell her to slow down until he saw she had finished them.

"Well you seem to like cookies but that is not what I actually came to talk to you about. Would you like to come to Beacon?" Ozpin asked he saw Ruby's eyes widen from shock.

"I don't know" Ozpin was a bit floored at this answer as he expected Ruby to say yes almost immediately.

"Well, you have nine months to decide. When you make up your mind call me on this number and I talk to you about it" with that Ozpin got up and walked towards the door with Glynda in front of him already walking through the door.

"Goodbye Ruby," He said as he walked out leaving Ruby alone in the room. Once she heard the click of the door she immediately jumped up into the air and pumped her fist up into the air.

Her excitement and joy did not last long as she realised that Roman would almost certainly say know as it would be a massive risk. Ruby pulled out her scroll and called Roman.

Roman was currently sat in his office doing paperwork. He currently felt uncomfortable due to Cinder being sat in a chair opposite him. She had been sat there for a good two hours and she had not done anything or even spoke. Roman's scroll then started to buzz and before he could answer it cinder moved and grabbed the scroll. She answered the call coming from Ruby and put it on speaker and set it down on the table in front of Roman. She then moved her finger to her mouth signalling for Roman not to tell Ruby that she was there. While Roman thought this was strange he felt intimidated by Cinder, she had shown him her abilities earlier and he would rather she not use them on him.

"Hey, Ruby what's the matter?" Roman asked

"Hey, Dad well nothing is wrong so to say but..." Ruby asked uncertainty laced her voice.

"But?" Roman asked trying to get Ruby to continue.

"Well I stopped a dust store robbery and then the headmaster of Beacon academy came up to me and offered me a place in Beacon" Roman's face went pale at hearing this knowing he would have to force Ruby to decline. As he was about to speak Cinder leant forward from her seat.

"Very well Ruby. You will accept his offer and act as a spy for us" Cinder said.

"Cinder? What are you doing there? You and Dad aren't cheating on Mum are you cause she will kill you both and enjoy it" Ruby said sounding shocked to hear Cinders voice. Ruby and Cinder had only met once and it was brief as she was leaving the house.

"No Ruby I am not cheating on Neo but more importantly you will not accept the offer. Get on the first airship here and we will speak further about this matter and why you will not go" Roman then muted Ruby and took the scroll off the table and put it in the draw. Cinder was now scowling at Roman.

"Do not try to overrule me here Roman. This is how we will proceed regardless of how you feel" Roman slammed his hand down on the table once Cinder finished speaking.

"No. she will not go, it is far too much of a risk and I will not put her in that much danger" Roman shouted. Cinder stood up and leaned across the table.

"Is there nothing I can do to change your mind?" Cinder asked bringing her face closer to Romans.

"No, and if you and your boss are stupid enough to want to involve a child in an operation this big then I will have no further dealings with you or your boss and that is final. So if that is everything then can you please leave" Roman replied keeping his eyes locked on hers.

"Very well, I will let Mistress Salem show you what happens to people who do not do as she wants. Goodbye Roman, I will see you again soon" With that Cinder turned around and went to walk out of the room but Roman stopped her at the last second.

"Oh and Cinder if you would be so kind as to give your 'mistress' a message for me" As he said this he held up two middle fingers.

Cinder simply scowled and threw a small fireball at Roman's computer causing it to break immediately. After that Cinder walked out the room unaware that Ruby had overheard her. Roman took the scroll out of the draw and hung up. He was in too foul of a mood to speak to anyone now. 


	7. A meeting of evil

**Hey guys, not much to put here so I would just like to say, yes I know it is a short chapter but I have not had a lot of time to write this week.**

 **The Fanfiction recommendation this week is 'Smoldering Rose' by SnowieBearSnarl, it is actually one of the first RWBY fanfictions I ever read and it is still my favourite to this day so please check it out.**

Cinder fall was currently walking down a dimly lit corridor. She finally stopped once she stood in front of a set of large doors. Cinder used both of her hands to push open the doors to reveal a wide room that was also dimly lit. At the very back of the room was a large black throne with large windows on either side. In the centre of the room was a long table with 5 seats at it, 2 seats on either side and on at the top facing the doors. At the table were three men. The man sat farthest away from the door was slightly tanned with grey hair and a grey moustache he was wearing a grey overcoat with yellow linings, a yellow dress shirt and a black necktie. On the right of him was a tall and muscular man with short brown hair and beard. He had an olive green coat covering a black sleeved shirt and a large belt. Across from these two men, and next to one of the empty seats was a pale-skinned scorpion faunus. He had a white sleeveless jacket along with white pants. This was then covered by a dark brown jacket. Cinder walked passed them and sat in the empty seat next to the faunus leaving one empty seat at the head of the table.

"So I suppose you are here to tell us about you dazzling successes," The man in the grey overcoat said, his voice thick with sarcasm.

"Watts. One more word and I will run my own experiment on how long it takes for your eyeballs to melt from that skull of yours" Cinder said holding out her palm with a fireball in it. Watts simply stared at Cinder before leaning back into his chair.

"Do it. Do it. Do it." The scorpion faunus said his voice rising in eagerness. As Cinder was about to reply a new voice sounded from behind a second set of doors.

"Now now Tyrian let us not get ahead of our selves Watts is still very useful for our organisation" At the sound of the new voice the doors were pushed open revealing a white-skinned woman with dark red and purple veins covering her entire body. The sclerae of her eyes were black and her irises emitted a red glow. She was wearing a long black robe. As she walked in everyone stood up and gave a small bow towards the woman. In response, the women carried on walking towards the end of the table to the only empty seat. Once she reached it she sat down and held her hand up signalling for everyone else to sit down.

"Cinder, how did it go with Roman and the girl?" The woman said. Cinder took a moment before replying.

"Everything went to plan until Roman found out the girl had been offered a place in Beacon. He was adamant that he would not involve her" Cinder said while looking away from Salem.

"That is disappointing but we will not pressure him, we still have the two kids. This just means a bit more work" The woman said.

"Roman refused. He said that if we were stupid enough to try to involve a child in a job this big then he would rather not work with us" Cinder said hoping that the woman did not as Cinder any more questions.

"Is that all?" The woman asked.

"No. He also said to give you this message" As Cinder finished her sentence she held up her middle finger to the woman. She stared at the upheld finger and placed both of her hands together onto the table and lent her chin on them.

"Very well. If he wants to behave like a child then, like a child he shall be punished" With that, the woman stood up and walked over to a window and stared out through it.

"Take some of my grim and burn the camp. Kill everyone there except Roman and the young woman. They will both be useful to us" The woman said her voice lacking any discernable emotion.

"Yes, Mistress Salem" Cinder replied.

"Watts" Salem said.

"Yes," He said sitting up straighter than before.

"I want you to go to Mistral academy and speed up our 'negotiations' with him. Make it so Cinder and those two children can go to Beacon during the Vytal festival as students from Mistral".

"Yes, Mistress Salem," Watts said.

"Tyrian, I want you to search for the Raven Branwen. I believe that she knows the location of the Spring maiden"

"Yes, my goddess" Tyrian said.

"Hazel, go to the white fang and get that young faunus to join us, I don't feel like Sienna Khan will join us so we will need a new face for the white fang. One that is easier to manipulate " Salem asked.

"Yes Mistress Salem" the man in the green coat, now known as Hazel, said. With that Salem held up her hand and the doors opened. Hazel, Tyrian, Cinder and Watts all stood up and gave a slight bow or in Tyrian's case bending at a complete 90° angle, they all then left leaving Salem on her own.

"Are you listening Oz?" Salem asked the empty room.

"Always" A voice sounded inside Salem's head.

"I have my pieces set. Do you even know where the board is?" Salem spoke once more.

"I have my pawns, rooks, knights and bishops. Soon I will have my queen" The voice said showing barely any emotion apart from determination.

"The question is then, will those pieces be enough for my army"

"I have held out this long already have I not?" The voice spoke.

"You may have held out yesterday but that does not mean you will hold out tomorrow. How many will you let die before you finally do what you were always going to do since the start and die" Salem asked malice seeping into her voice.

…

…

"There will always be a force to oppose you regardless if I am gone or not"

"You didn't answer my question Oz, how many more" Salem started to smirk at this point as she felt the link between her and Ozpin close signalling he was done speaking. She then proceeded to walk out of the second set of doors.


	8. A town of fire

**Hey, guys and girls guess who's here with an early chapter. OK, you know what that sounded a lot more funny and charming in my head so I am never gonna say that again.**

 **Fanfiction recommendation for today is: 'RWBY: Derelicts in Black' by frozen thorn**

Ruby was currently getting off the bullhead at the camp. Once she reached the end of the ramp she started off towards her home. As she was walking she passed many people, the resident blacksmith Luyten Ceti just happened to be one of these people. As she walked passed him he waved her over to him. He had dark skin and no hair. He wore a red shirt with black pants with a blacksmith apron covering his bodies and a pair of blacksmith goggles pulled over his eyes with black soot covering his face.

"What do you need Luyten?" Ruby asked her curiosity peaked since Luyten usually likes to be alone and would rarely speak.

"Well i was going to go and see your father later about acquiring some more steel for weapons, while we do have enough to last a month or so I think it would be best to have some more just to be safe but as you are back I was wondering if you could go, he hasn't been in a good mood the past few days" He asked without taking his eyes off of Ruby.

"OK will do. Do you know why he is in such a bad mood?"

"Something to do with that Cinder chick I surmise," He said while bringing his hand up to his chin to scratch it.

"OK, well goodbye Luyton I will come back here after speaking to Dad and I will tell you what he says" With that Ruby started to walk away throwing her hand up to wave at Luyton as she moved away.

As Ruby neared the cottage she could hear the sound of gunshots coming from behind the cottage. Normally, if Ruby heard gunshots she would get worried and prepare for a fight but these gunshots Ruby could recognise as they came from Roman's cane which had a very distinctive sound. Ruby opened the door to the cottage and was created with the sight of Neo sitting cross-legged on the couch eating ice cream while watching a documentary on the creation of ice cream. Ruby walked over while making sure to keep very silent as Neo had not noticed the door had opened and had her back to Ruby. As Ruby neared Neo she made sure she took her time with each movement as to make sure that she was not discovered. Once she was directly behind Neo she moved her hands to be just behind Neo shoulders.

"BOOO!" Ruby shouted as she shook Neo's shoulder. Almost instantaneously Neo spun around and threw four knives at Ruby, all of them caught Ruby's cape causing her to get pulled back as the knives embedded themselves into the wall. Once Neo gathered her bearings she crossed her arms over her chest and leant on one of her legs while tapping her foot on the ground. Her face held a frown on it. Ruby managed to pull the knives out of her cape one at a time and each time one came free she threw it towards Neo who caught it and started juggling the four knives.

"You really should stop watching ice cream documentaries they always leave you vulnerable to people sneaking up on you," Ruby said as she dusted off her cape and put her finger through the holes in her cape. Neo put the knives away and started to sign a sentence to Ruby.

"OK, but if I have to stop watching ice cream documentaries you have to stop watching things about cookies" As Neo signed this Ruby's face changed into one of horror at the thought of halting her quest to know everything about cookies and how they were made.

"How dare you propose something so torturous...y-you monster," Ruby said. Both females stared at each other their eyes full of determination. Until both started to laugh, albeit Neo made no sound while laughing, and they both walked towards each other and they hugged. Content smiles upon their faces.

"Dad, out the back?" Ruby asked. Neo simply nodded to her in response.

"He isn't in a good mood so be careful with what you say to him" Neo warned. This time it was Ruby's turn to simply nod and with that, she left Neo's company and walked to through the kitchen and out the back door.

Roman was not wearing his hat at the moment and he was holding his cane out in front of him with a sight popped up on the end of it. A short distance away were some cans on a tree stump. The stump had a plethora of holes in it. Some were new from Roman but the large majority of the holes were from Ruby when she was younger and still learning to use the sniper function on Crescent Rose. Roman had not noticed Ruby either and she decided that she would also try to scare him. Instead of walking up to Roman and scaring him like she did with Neo, Ruby decided to pull out Crescent Rose in its compact form. She held it up in front of her and took aim at the cans Roman was firing at and she quickly fired off a shot. The can simply exploded from the immense power of Ruby's sniper. The loud sound of Ruby's gun and the exploding can startled Roman causing him to jump up a little bit. Like Neo, Roman also turned around instinctively and fired off a shot at Ruby. She managed to block the bullet by holding up the compact form of Crescent Rose in front of herself.

"Wow twice in a day. Maybe I should find a way of scaring you and Mum from a distance" Ruby said with a slight chuckle. The chuckle soon died out as Roman just scowled at her. After a short time of silence, Roman decided to speak.

"No," He said while turning back to the stump and continuing to fire at the cans.

"No to what?" Ruby asked.

"To going to Beacon" Roman said as his cane ran out of ammo and he put it back down on the ground.

"I already knew before I asked you silly" Ruby said as she walked towards Roman and enveloped him in a hug. After a brief pause Roman returned the hug leaning his head on top of Ruby's.

"Do you understand why?" Roman asked.

"Yes. Of course, I understand, I may be young but I still know my stuff"

"OK" Roman replied happily now he knew that Ruby was not angry or upset by being denied the opportunity to become a huntress.

"So how's this job going with Cinder" Ruby asked.

"It's not" Roman replied hoping Ruby would drop it and he did not have to think of her.

"What do you mean?" She asked causing Roman to started cursing internally.

"Well, she was very insistent that you go to Beacon and get involved with this job. I told her no and that I would not work with someone who would include a child in a job this big" Roman said.

"Well how big is the job?"

"It was a big job, if caught during it the punishment would have easily been the death penalty," Roman said. At the mention of the death penalty, Ruby looked straight at Roman, tears starting to form in her eyes.

"Why would you take on a risk that big" Roma rushed his thumb under Ruby's eye wiping away her tears.

"Because the payoff would have been worth it but you have no need to worry. Like I said i told Cinder to leave and not come back" Roman said a small smile forming on his face to reassure Ruby.

"Now is there anything else you wanted?" Roman asked.

"Err oh yes there was something actually, Luyton was hoping that he could get some more steel for weapons and other things," Ruby asked now wiping her eyes. Roman stood up straight and placed his hand on his chin while leaning his elbow on his other arm that was across his chest.

"OK, but we will have to order it after the next group goes into town," Roman said.

"Why?" Ruby questioned while Roman moved his hand from his chin and started to rub the back of his head.

"Well, when Cinder left I told her to give her boss a message and Cinder did not like this message so she threw a fireball at my computer destroying it," Roman said while chuckling lightly.

"Does Mum know?"

"Nope and she isn't going to find out. She would kill me if she found out that I caused the computer to break and she isn't going to find out is she...OW OW OW OW" Roman stopped speaking when he felt a pain coming from his ear pulling him down and turning him around. He was faced with the sight of a woman with pink and brown hair who looked very angry.

"Ah Neo. How are you, honey?" Roman said his voice still filled with pain. Neo just scowled further and started walking away still holding Roman by his ear. She quickly offered a wave back at Ruby before continuing to walk away. Ruby simply stood there for a bit before pulling out her Crescent Rose and quickly firing off three shots hitting all of the remaining cans, she then placed Crescent Rose back on her back before walking away back to Luyten's house.

Ruby was currently heading home after visiting Luyton again to pass on Roman's reply. It was darker now and some of the other teenagers were walking around and lighting the torches along the street. It always surprised Ruby that there were not many teenagers in the camp, it was a small camp to begin with, and there was a large number of torches, probably more than they needed and yet they always got them all lit very quickly. As Ruby continued walking she wrapped her cloak around her to shield herself from the cold wind and made sure her hood would not fall down.

 _ **-Bang**_

 _ **-Bang**_

 _ **-Bang**_

Ruby turned instantaneously towards the source of the gunfire. It was the front gate. Ruby immediately activated her semblance and disappeared towards the gate leaving behind a trail of red rose petals.

Once she arrived she saw a few of the watchmen firing their rifles over the wall. Ruby climbed the ladder and looked over the wooden wall to see hordes of Grimm stampeding towards the gate. There was at least 300 Grimm ranging from Beowolves, creeps a few death stalkers and a few Grimm that Ruby had never seen before but she noted how they looked strikingly like large elephants. Ruby immediately pulled out Crescent Rose and aimed her rifle at a few of the closer Grimm. She fired off a few shots each one hitting their target and a few of them killing them.

"Ruby!" Ruby turned to her right to acknowledge the voice. The source was a tall, muscular lion faunus. He was wearing a leather chest piece with a belt filled with different kinds of dust bullets.

"Go tell Roman what's happening. I don't think we can hold out for long so he may need to start an evacuation" He shouted to be heard over the roars of the Grimm and the gunfire of the other guards. Ruby simply nodded her head and rushed off using her semblance to cover ground quicker. Once she reached her home she opened the door and walked in. She noted how you could not hear the carnage taking place outside from inside the house.

"Mum! Dad!" Ruby shouted up the stairs as she checked downstairs. Almost immediately she heard feet running down the stairs. Both Roman and Neo entered the kitchen where Ruby currently was.

"What's up?" Roman asked.

"Grimm" Ruby said.

"How many" Neo signed worry clear in her eyes.

"Two-three hundred" Once Ruby said this Roman started to pace back and forth his chin resting in his hand.

"We evacuate then. We are strong but that much...we won't last another hour" Roman said his voice quiet and solum. Neo slammed her foot down her face scrunched up in anger.

"We have one bullhead and that can only carry 10 people. So how do you suppose we evacuate the rest" Neo signed. It was obvious to everyone that Neo already knew Roman's response.

"We don't. The first ones there get to leave" Roman said.

"What happens when they get to a city. Most of the people here are wanted" Neo signed.

"They just have to get out of here. A life in prison is better than being ripped apart by Grimm" As Roman said this he started to walk towards the front door. Neo just stared at him knowing this was going to be the end.

"Get back here for one second" Neo signed. Roman obeyed and walked back towards Ruby and Neo. Neo quickly initiated a family hug between the three of them. Ruby could feel herself tearing up at the fact that this might be the last time she is with her family. Neo was the first to pull away and she rubbed her thumb under Ruby's eye, wiping the tears from it. Neo smiled softly at Ruby which made her feel safe.

"Go to the bullhead and tell them to get ready to take off once nine more people get on," Roman said as he placed his hand on Ruby's shoulder.

"What do you mean nine more, the bullhead can hold ten" At this Roman softly chuckled.

"One spot for yourself silly" Roman said now ruffling Ruby's hair.

"B-but what about you two?, What will happen when we all get to safety?, Surely someone else can take my place I mean they could do so much more," Ruby said grabbing hold of Roman's sleeve.

"Ruby you know that me and Neo won't make it out of this" Roman moved his hand so it was cupping her cheek.

"When you all get to safety they will need a leader and you can do that," Roman said as he said this he moved his hand and grabbed his cane in his right hand. He moved towards the door. While he was doing this Neo kissed Ruby's head.

"We love you" Neo signed.

"N-no please d-don't go. P-please" Ruby said he voice breaking in sadness. Roman opened the door and held it open for Neo who looked back once more at Ruby before walking out.

"Make sure you are on that bullhead," Roman said his voice firm, leaving no room for Ruby to argue.

"Goodbye Red" Once Roman said this he closed the door behind him leaving Ruby alone. Ruby would have sworn that she had seen a tear fall from Roman's eye as he left but at the moment all she could do was cry while staring at the door hoping for them to walk back in.

Suddenly, an explosion rocked the ground causing Ruby to stumble a bit. Once the shaking stopped Ruby ran towards the door and opened it to the sound of screams and buildings on fire. Ruby immediately activated her semblance and ran off towards the back of the camp where the bullhead was. It took her a minute to get there. Once there she could see the pilot throwing crates off the bullhead.

"Slick!" Ruby shouted. The shout garnered the attention of the pilot who looked up at Ruby. His hair was gelled back and he had a grey fleece on with black jeans.

"Ruby! Great, you're ok. Can you help me?" He said his voice and actions told Ruby that he had already planned on evacuating even if Roman said no.

"What you need?" Ruby asked believing she would help to throw things out of the bullhead.

"I go round up people and bring them here" He spoke quickly but Ruby could understand.

"OK how many, ten?"

"Fourteen," He said.

"What? The bullhead can only handle ten people" Ruby was worried now as she hoped that Slick had not gone insane, while an extra four people was not much the bullhead was small and could only handle a few people to begin with and this one was an older model so it may not have been able to handle extra people.

"I am dealing with the weight issue now. If I can remove enough junk I should just be able to squeeze fifteen people on including you. Now go!" He said his voice showing that he meant business.

Ruby activated her semblance and sped off leaving a trail of rose petal behind her. As Ruby was running through the streets she would pick up the first people she saw and would barely stop long enough for them to understand what was happening before they found themselves outside of a rapidly filling bullhead.

"One more person" Ruby kept saying to herself as she searched the streets for one final person. She stopped once she heard some crying coming from a nearby building. She immediately ran inside and she was met by the sight of a young boy, around the age of five, sat in the corner of the small room hidden behind shelves of food and other supplies. He had dark black hair and had a green top on with brown shorts. Ruby walked towards him slowly. Ruby recognised the young boy from when she would visit the camps unofficial baker for cookies.

"Hello, Johan" Ruby said while kneeling down in front of him. The little boy looked up and stared at Ruby.

"Auntie Ruby," the boy said, his voice did not hide his fear as to what was happening.

"We are going to get out of here," Ruby said offering the boy a small. The boy went to stand up but quickly stumbled and would have fallen if Ruby had not caught him in her arms. She saw that he had a cut on his leg that while small, it was still deep and blood was slowly but surely trickling out. Ruby did not know how to bandage the cut so she did the one thing that she knew how to do. She placed her hand on his shoulders causing him to look up at her.

"For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all, infinite in distance and unbound by death. I release your soul, and by my shoulder protect thee" Ruby said with her eyes closed. Once Ruby finished speaking a faint glow started to form around the boy until he was completely covered in the glow. Once the glow faded the boy opened his eyes and looked at his leg. To his surprise, it had stopped bleeding.

"W-what did you do?" He asked his mouth forming a smile.

"I unlocked your aura. Now let's get out of here" Ruby picked the boy up but as she was about to leave the boy spoke up.

"Ruby, where mommy?" He asked.

"I don't know but I will find her and bring her to you," She said before speeding off.

After about thirty seconds Ruby arrived back at the bullhead to see it swarmed by a small group of people, all shouting at the pilot.

"Let us on" some shouted.

"Why are they on there rather than us" some others shouted.

Ruby quickly ran around them to the back of the airship and placed Johan inside with the others. Ruby then climbed on top of the bullhead and pulled her hood above her head and pulled out Crescent Rose. She aimed it up into the air and fired a single shot off. Everyone in the immediate vicinity looked straight at Ruby who immediately felt like shrinking away from their stares. Ruby swallowed once and lightly coughed into her fist.

"W-what is t-the problem here?" Ruby asked trying and failing, to sound confident.

"Why are they on the airship instead of me," One man said while pointing at some of the occupants in the bullhead.

"First come first served, I'm sorry. If we could we would take everyone" Ruby said.

"Bullshit, I saw you run past me earlier and yet you carried on going...You chose who got on this bullhead" Ruby wanted to say she hadn't but she knew it was true, she had gone looking to find the younger people, those who could care for them and a few people who could fight.

"W-well that's the way the c-cookie crumbles I g-guess," Ruby said not meeting the eyes of anyone in the crowd, even Slick who looked at her with pity, pity that someone so young would have to make a decision as to who would live and who would die. He knew that it was one thing to take a random life, one that meant nothing to you but it was completely different to take the lives of people you knew and liked.

"Yeah well, I am getting on the bullhead whether there is room or not," One man said as he walked towards the door. Ruby jumped down transforming Crescent Rose into its scythe form and stabbing the ground with its point.

"No you aren't," Ruby said her voice full of authority. The crowd of people stepped back from Ruby as all of them knew what damage she could do with her scythe.

"Slick start her up and go" Slick did not wait around once given his order and he climbed into the bullhead to start the engines. After forty seconds the engines whirred to life and Ruby was about to tell Slick to go already until she realised he was waiting for her.

"JOHAN!" a woman behind the crowd shouted. Ruby recognised the voice as Johan's mother. Ruby knew that she could not get through the small crowd so she returned Crescent Rose back into its compact form and shot at the ground propelling her upwards over the crowd. Ruby hit the ground running and her semblance immediately allowed her to meet Johan's mother and grab her. Ruby then turned around and ran back to the bullhead. Once close to the crowd she fired Crescent Rose again albeit, it was much harder to do so as she was already struggling to hold Johan's mother in both arms let alone in one. Once she landed she let Johan's mother get inside before banging on the bullheads window signalling for Slick to take off.

"Ruby! What are you doing? Get on!" Slick shouted. Ruby just smiled and shook her head.

"Slick it looks like you're full, see you next time," Ruby said her head cocked to the side with a goofy grin on her face masking he sadness at the overall situation.

"Yeah it seems I am full, see you around Ruby" and with that Slick let the bullhead lift off into the sky and fly away. A few of the people around Ruby walked away their heads hung in defeat, others just slumped down to the ground letting tears fall freely. Ruby simply put Crescent Rose away and ran towards where the majority of the fighting was going on.


	9. The town burns

Hey, guys, I know this chapter is late so I wanted to apologise and explain why. I was sick. There done that's all you need to know, I was too sick to write so I didn't.

Fanfiction recommendation: 'Shattered Rose' by jws381

Roman climbed the ladder that led to the top of the fence. Once up there he could see the horde of Grimm had stopped their attack and were instead waiting shoulder to shoulder like a regular army. The few guards that were still on the fence all looked towards Roman to clear things up but even he had no clue at the moment.

"Oh Roman, you thought you would get off easily," a feminine voice said from behind the horde of Grimm.

"Cinder?" Roman shouted out in confusion.

"Yes Roman now if you could climb down from there and agree to come with us and be so kind as to let us destroy this place then it will make life so much easier," Cinder said.

"Are you fucking crazy? In what world do you think I would go with you, you are walking with Grimm. Now could you piss off I really don't want to deal with your hissy fit right now" Roman said his cocksure grin forming on his face. Cinder simply stared at him and raised her hand above her head.

"Just know Roman this could have all ended quickly if you wanted it to" With that Cinder dropped he hand to her side and the Grimm charged forward. Her figure quickly disappeared in the swarm of black that was the Grimm. A few Boarbatusks threw themselves at the front gate causing the doors to explode off of there hinges. Roman left the fence and climbed down to join the fighting. He saw a small Beowolf running towards a terrified guard. Roman quickly took aim with his cane and fired a shot hitting the Grimm in the back and engulfing it in a small explosion. The Grimm evaporated soon after and Roman turned his focus towards the rest of the Grimm. He felt a presence next to him and he turned to see Neo next to him holding her parasol.

"Once more into the void my dear" Roman said gesturing towards the battle.

"Of course" Neo signed and they both started walking towards the Grimm and more importantly Cinder. A large Creep tried to jump upon Neo but she quickly impaled the tip of her parasol into the stomach of the Creep and threw it to her side where it died. Once Roman reached the front gates alongside Neo they both saw Cinder standing with a sadistic smile upon her face.

"I am glad that you have decided to join me, Roman. I did think you would continue to try to fight me" Cinder said.

 _*Bang*_

 _*Bang*_

 _*Bang*_

Roman fired off three shots all aimed at various parts of Cinder's body. She simply held out her hand and let the bullets hit her hand where they instantaneously evaporated. The smile that once adorned Cinder's face was now gone and her face was twisted into a scowl.

"I do apologise Cinder but I thought you had a bug on you, I thought it would be best I get it off," Roman said.

"Really you are going to try to stall now, you realise you are meant to attack me after you succeed at stalling right," Cinder said, her smugness returning to her voice.

"Who said I was stalling? I'm not stalling. Neo are you stalling?" Roman said in an innocent voice before turning to Neo. Neo simply shook her head side from side.

"See. Neo isn't stalling either. Are you stalling Cind-" Roman was cut off by a fireball flying right next to his face.

"No, I'm not and regardless even if you stall me there are still a lot of Grimm inside your little camp and even more around it"

"Yes well, I feel that my men can handle a few Grimm" As Roman said this he could see a bullhead lift up from the ground and fly off.

"Oh well, job done now can you...just...piss off already," Roman said as he started to fire at Cinder using his cane. Neo ran forward at the same time and she thrust her parasol at Cinder. Cinder simply stepped back and grabbed the parasol and threw it to the side with Neo still attached. Roman finally ran out of ammo and instead of reloading he quickly charged in and swung his cane at Cinder's head. Cinder quickly batted it away and punched towards Roman who quickly dodged. This continued for another minute or so when Neo got back up and swung a kick at Cinder who just ducked under allowing Roman to get hit by the foot. Roman quickly recovered and continued to fight Cinder alongside Neo, neither party making any progress.

Ruby was speeding along the roads trying her best to avoid fighting the Grimm, she did not want anything to slow her down on the way to the front gate. Peoples tents and makeshift houses were burning everywhere she went.

Once she got to the front she pulled out Crescent Rose and started racing around trying her best to kill the Grimm.

After five minutes of running her exhaustion started to catch up with her and she slowed down to a complete stop and used Crescent Rose to keep her up. A Boarbatusk took this moment of exhaustion to start barreling towards Ruby. She didn't notice the attack until too late and the Boarbatusk hit her side causing her to go flying into the air. Once she hit the floor she tried her best to stand and slowly she rose back up. Once she was steady she realised the Boarbatusk had prepared another attack. Ruby used Crescent Rose and shot the ground just in front of the rolling Boarbatusk causing it to trip and uncurl from its ball form. Once it was fully stretched out in the air Ruby rushed towards it pushing her legs to there limits and she swung Crescent Rose severing the Boarbatusk into two halves. Ruby got no rest as she soon heard Roman's grunt. Ruby raced out the front gate and could see Neo on the ground in front of Cinder, her eyes were closed and she was covered in dirt. Roman was further away from Cinder but he too was on the ground. Ruby ran towards him once she saw him trying to get up.

"Dad!" Ruby calmly put her hand on Romans back to steady him.

"it's alright, I've got you," Ruby said still holding Roman.

"R...Ruby" Roman said his voice was raspy.

"No...don't speak. I know you love me already and all that other crap, so save your strength" Ruby said with a smile on her lips and tears forming in her eyes.

"I...I wasn't going to say that. I was going to say. Why...the...fuck are you still here"

"Oh. Well someone else needed my place so I stayed behind to fight" Roman gave a light chuckle in response to Ruby.

"Well anyway...where's Neo" Roman said still struggling to get up.

"She's next to Cinder...who seems really annoyed. She's also tapping her foot on the ground. I think she is waiting for you" As Ruby said this Roman finally managed to gather enough strength to stand up, with the help of his cane. Once he was stood up he looked towards Cinder and proceeded to walk towards her until he felt a hand grab his back.

"Dad you are in no shape to fight. Please just go and I will grab Mum and run

"Nah. I figure if I gotta go down fighting then fighting for my life's work is what's best, now go ahead and grab your mum and then run off, I am going to stall for you one final time" With that Roman carried on walking leaving Ruby on her own.

"Family time over Roman? You could always waste a bit more of my time talking to her if you want, it's not like I have a schedule or anything" Cinder said once Roman was close enough to her.

"Oh shut up already," Roman said this and then swung his cane at Cinder who brushed the attack off to her side and punched Roman in the centre of his chest throwing him back five feet. Roman got back up and tried to attack Cinder again but this time she grabbed hold of Romans cane and kicked him in the chest causing him to land flat on the floor. As he struggled to get back up Cinder walked over to him and stood on his chest pushing him back down to the ground.

"Give up already. I just want to leave and continue with my plans so I could really do without you fighting the inevitable" it was at this point that Roman felt all of his strength leave his body. Cinder motioned for one of the nearby Creeps to come over.

"Take him and his partner." The Creep simply looked at Cinder and then Roman before grabbing a piece of Roman's suit in its mouth and pulling him away while another Creep grabbed Neo by the foot. Roman tried to fight back but he couldn't. As he was slowly losing consciousness he could see Ruby approaching Cinder holding an unfolded Crescent Rose behind her head.

Ruby felt her anger rise as she watched her father get beaten to the ground and then dragged away. Ruby knew that she could not leave while Cinder was taking her parents so she let Crescent Rose change out of its compact form and she moved it behind her head so it was resting on her neck and shoulders. This did not go unnoticed by Cinder who was bored by this point and just wanted to leave.

"Kid can you just go get eaten by one of the Grimm, please. I really can't be bothered dealing with an insect, like you" Cinder said her face and voice showing her boredom.

"Why do you want my family," Ruby asked her voice showing he desperation.

"That's none of your business, now you have one last chance to leave before I burn you to a crisp" Ruby did not stop moving forward.

"Fine" With that Cinder threw a single fireball at Ruby who moved out of the way easily with her speed. Cinder got another fireball ready in her hand and threw it in front of Ruby missing on purpose. Ruby did exactly as Cinder predicted and jumped back to dodge it. it was in that split second Cinder threw a second fireball hitting Ruby in the chest shattering her aura. Ruby was flung back into the wall of the camp where she stayed briefly before falling out of it and crashing into the ground. Cinder turned around to walk back into the forest and when she did she could see that the Creeps were waiting for her and Roman was still conscious and was staring wide-eyed at where Ruby lay seemingly lifeless on the ground., Cinder walked up to him and kicked him in the face knocking him unconscious and then she continued to walk to where her own bullhead had landed a short distance away. The rest of the Grimm left as the night went on and the flames of the city slowly went out.


	10. From the ashes

**Hey guys, I know this is a short chapter but I wanted the next chapter to be the start of Ruby's time at Beacon and thought it best if that was a chapter on its own rather than putting it with this chapter. Don't worry though if everything goes to plan the next chapter should be rather long, I'm hoping for at least 6 thousand words we will see, I may not have the time due to some people being too lazy to finish their part of a project meaning I couldn't even start on it.**

 **Fanfiction recommendation: 'My Little Fire Flower' by Monokub – Seriously you should check this one out, I have spent most of this week binge-reading it and it has quickly become one of my favourite fanfictions I have read.**

The area was silent and peaceful. Well, that was until Ruby Rose regained her consciousness. Ruby felt like every muscle in her body was burning. She tried to push herself off of the ground but her arms were too weak. Instead, she settled for just rolling over and staring up at the sky. Once she was looking at the sky she noticed that the sky was not a clear blue like it usually was, instead the sky was filled with black smoke. It was then that Ruby remembered the night before, the destruction, the death and the loss of her family. Ruby quickly began to cry, her screams once again shattering the silence in the area.

After an unknown amount of time had passed Ruby had run out of tears and her muscles no longer hurt as much as before. Slowly she pushed herself off of the ground. She was far from steady on her feet but she could move at least. Slowly she limped to the entrance to what was once the camp. Without going in Ruby could see that the streets were covered in burnt bodies and dried blood. The sight made Ruby gag.

"Why...why would anyone do this. So much death. Mum...Dad. MUM! DAD!" Ruby said out loud her jaw quivering more and more with each passing second. Then a thought occurred to her. She was alone now, her friends and family were gone. Ruby felt like her heart was about to stop, her breaths started to become short and quick ad Ruby could feel herself getting light headed. ' _Ruby. Calm down, hyperventilating is not going to help. It then occurred to Ruby that this was not done by just anyone, it was done by Cinder. Ruby clenched her fists and her face changed from one of sorrow to one of pure rage._

' _I will kill you Cinder. For taking everything from me'_ Ruby thought to herself. She then realised that she didn't know where Cinder would be.

' _The Grimm! Cinder could control the Grimm so I just need to find more people who can control Grimm! But this is new, no one has ever had the power to control Grimm before or has there. OK, Ruby think. If there was anywhere in the world that would have any information on this power then where would it be...The Internet'_ Once Ruby finished her thought she took out her scroll which while cracked was still useable, for now at least. Ruby quickly clicked on the Brin web browser

she typed in 'Power to control Grimm', sadly all that came up were science articles about how Beowolves communicate with each other. Ruby decided to change her search slightly and added 'legend' to the end of her search. Ruby could not hide the smile that crept onto her face when she saw the first result, 'The trial of the human Grimm', Ruby clicked on the link and it took her to a book site. Ruby read the description of the story, it read: this myth is a story about the human who could control Grimm. Ruby was disappointed with the fact that there was nothing more detailed. Ruby carried on scrolling through the page until she came to the comment area. The first comment gave her more hope.

The first comment was by a person called 'Thetamine35' and he had posted that there were no confirmed writings about the myth, which Ruby found strange as something this big would have surely been written about hundreds if not thousands of times. Thetamine35's comment did not end there, It carried on to say that it was rumoured that only one copy of the myth existed at the moment and that the owner was none other than the headmaster of Beacon Academy. Ruby shut off her scroll after reading that hoping to conserve her already low battery. Now the question was, how was she meant to find this single copy if it even existed. It was in that moment that Ruby remembered her own meeting with the headmaster of Beacon Academy. A small grin formed on Ruby's face as she pulled up her hood and walked towards the road that leads into Vale. ' _I may not know where you are Mum and Dad or even if you are still alive but I promise I will find Cinder and I will kill her but until then. No one else will die by my hands'._

 _Ozpin was sat at his desk looking over paperwork. While drinking from his mug, Glynda had gone home at this point and Ozpin had long since been on his own, well to a degree._

" _Ozpin?" Came a voice._

 _"Hello, Salem," Ozpin replied while continuing with his paperwork._

" _It seems one of your pieces has already been lost, I guess to you it is just one among thousands."_

" _Sometimes sacrifices have to be made but remember. In chess a pawn can always be sacrificed for a lost piece" Ozpin said his voice showing no emotion._

 _"You know Oz, for the past hundred years or so I have started to wonder who is the real monster, the one who sends soulless monsters to kill those you call innocent or the one who sends children to fight those monster and will sacrifice them like they are nothing but a broken toy, what about you?" Salem asked, actually curious about what he would say._

 _"No,"_ _Ozpin asked as he turned his chair around and stood out of it and looked out of the large window. In the far distance he could see plumes of smoke, 'well looks like I will be getting a call soon'_

" _Goodbye Salem."_

" _Until next time."_


	11. A field of inspiration

Hey guys, so for the next few weeks chapters may, and I do stress that it is only a possibility, get a bit shorter due to my AS-level exams starting in 9 weeks. It may seem like a long time away but there is so much content to cover in it that I need to put my attention on my exams.

Fanfiction recommendation: 'How Could You Be My Enemy' by TheAngriestFace -Seriously this story and its equal were amazing.

Ruby was currently sat at the back of a large air carrier, with her black hood all the way up, on her way to Beacon. It had been eight months since the attack on Ruby's home and she had enrolled into Beacon in the hopes of finding out more about the power to control the Grimm. From her seat in the back, Ruby looked out and observed the people around here. This was something that Roman had taught her to do to make sure that there was no out of uniform policemen or people with weapons, while no one on the ship was a policeman it had become her natural habit when around people she did not know. At the very front of the window was a small group of three people stood talking to each other. One of them had long blond hair, while another had slightly long black hair with a small pink strip in it and the most excited looking person in the group had ginger hair and was jumping around like someone who had an ocean full of pure caffeine. In the corner near them, a blonde boy was sat, although sprawled may have been a more accurate description. Ruby made a note to avoid him as he looked like he was about to vomit enough to drop the large carrier from the sky. Nearest to Ruby sat a raven-haired girl with a large black bow. Ruby then noticed that her amber eyes were staring at her.

' _Welp looks like I got caught. OK, Ruby act natural and just do something'_ As she was thinking it dawned on her that she was still staring. Ruby then stood up and walked over to the nearby window to, hopefully, remove any suspicion she might have gathered. While Ruby did not think she had attracted any she wanted to be cautious. As she was looking out she could see Beacon academy in the distance.

"OK, Ruby no turning back now. Let's do this" Ruby muttered to herself as her hands curled up into fists.

"Excuse me, were you speaking to me then?" Ruby jumped in shock at the sound of the new voice. Ruby looked over and saw that a red-haired girl was standing there her emerald eyes staring into Ruby's silver eyes.

The girl's hair was held up in a ponytail and she was rather tall and muscular. She was wearing a brown overbust corset and a black A-line mini skirt with long brown gloves on both of her arms. She also wore bronze greaves and a bronze bracer on her left arm.

"O-oh no I w-wasn't, sorry" While Ruby could lie through her teeth and feel confident doing so when it came to regular interaction with people she struggled.

"What are you apologising for. I do not believe you have done anything wrong. My name is Pyrrha Nikos, what is yours?" The girls said in a gentle tone.

"R-Ruby...Rose." She said. Ruby had come up with her new last name a few months prior when she had gone back to where her home used to be on her mother's birthday and the entire field had been filled with roses. Her new last name reminded her of what she was getting revenge for.

"Well, that's a lovely name. If you don't mind me asking but aren't you a little young to be here...unless of course, you are just short. I-in which case I apologise for being insensitive" As Pyrrha said this she became increasingly nervous and Ruby held back the need to start laughing at Pyrrha's face which seemed to change after each word.

"N-no. I am just a little bit younger than everyone here. O-ozpin invited me." Ruby was now starting to feel more comfortable with the girl next to her.

"Oh thank god. How much younger?" Pyrrha asked, her shoulders relaxing a bit more.

"Two years" Ruby muttered.

"Beg your pardon, I couldn't catch that?" Pyrrha said.

"Two years"

"You're two years younger?"

"Y-yeah" Ruby was now starting to feel more nervous at Pyrrha's apparent shock that the girl standing in front of her was not just younger than her by a short bit but was actually Two years younger.

"Wow. Just wow. When you said that you were younger I thought you meant by a few months so Professor Ozpin was more lenient but two years. You must have done something pretty impressive to warrant Professor Ozpin's attention"

"Y-yeah I guess so" As Ruby said this she felt a bit of sadness build up inside her as she remembered that it was her actions that eventually led to her town getting attacked.

"Well, it was nice speaking with you Ruby" With that Pyrrha held out her right hand for Ruby to shake. Ruby took her hand and shook it gently.

"Bye Pyrrha" With that Pyrrha walked out through the nearest door leaving Ruby on her own once again. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw some of the other airships that were also heading to Beacon and a smaller white bullhead that was flying next to the ship from Atlas.

Ozpin was sitting in his chair like usual, sorting through paperwork and making sure the school had enough supplies for the term. He stopped once he heard the familiar chime of the elevator. The doors opened to reveal Glynda holding her scroll and frowning at it.

' _Great she's mad about something. Wait when isn't she mad about something.'_

"Ozpin!"

' _And she's mad at me, great just great'._

"Yes, Glynda." Ozpin said in his nicest voice hoping to calm her down.

"I understand that you are the headmaster sir but...why did you spend two thousand Lien on rose seeds and fertiliser?" Glynda said anger gone from her voice and replaced more with fatigue from dealing with Ozpin's shenanigans.

"Ah that well I just needed to give the queen some inspiration to make the future a bit easier"

"What? Sir...Ozpin why are you being cryptic with me? I understand that you are cryptic with the students but you know you don't have to be with me, I already know the whole story." Glynda looked sadder with each word she uttered. Ozpin stood up once more and looked out of the window, mug of hot chocolate still in his hand.

"Glynda. I am not being cryptic with you, I needed to give the queen some inspiration"

"But who is the queen? I know every student in this school and the only person who comes close to being a queen is Weiss Schnee but even she is just an heiress"

"...your using chess analogies aren't you" Ozpin simply nodded to her.

"Which means that you are likely talking about Ruby. How did you give her inspiration with roses?"

"Everyone needs a last name." Glynda immediately started to rub the bridge of her nose.

"That is a really silly way to get them to talk... Well, with that sorted I am going to continue setting the day up for the new students."

"Oh, Glynda." Glynda turned around when Ozpin spoke.

"Never assume you know the full story about anything." Once Ozpin finished his sentence Glynda walked off to continue to deal with the arrival of the students.

The large ramp finally touched the ground and people started to walk off it. Ruby waited until she thought she was the last person there and then she started to walk down to the concrete path. Ruby started to walk towards the main building.

Ruby's eyes were widened at the sights she could see. The whole building looked like it belonged in a story Ruby had once read everything around her just seemed brighter, even simple things like the trees. The most notable thing though was the large spire at the back of the buildings. Ruby could not believe how tall it was, she had read that the tower was tall but she did not believe it would seem as tall as it was, Ruby figured that it must have been at least 150 metres tall. However, even with it being so tall Ruby never felt that the tower was minacious. If anything Ruby felt that the tower had a calming presence which Ruby figured was strange. Ruby continued looking around, completely oblivious to what was going on around her. That was until she felt herself trip over something causing her to fall towards the ground.

Pain. That is what Ruby could feel right now. Her nose felt like it had been hit by a truck...multiple times.

"Look at what you have done you, dolt!" Ruby jumped at the voice and she finally turned over and opened her eyes. Ruby could see multiple cases toppled over on the floor, all of them were white and had a logo printed on them.

' _Wait a sec. That symbol looks familiar'_ Ruby pondered for a few more seconds on what the symbol meant but eventually gave up once the voice started speaking again.

"What do you have to say for yourself?" Ruby looked at the source of the voice for the first since falling on her face. Ruby saw a girl with pale skin and bright white hair, her eyes were pale blue and Ruby felt like they were piercing Ruby's very existence. Her hair was pulled up into an off-centre pony tale and was pinned up with a tiara. She was currently wearing a thigh length, strapless dress the faded from white to a pale blue at the hem of the dress. Over her dress, the girl was wearing a bell-sleeved bolero that matched her dress in terms of colour.

"S-sorry" The look the girl was giving her made Ruby want to curl up into a ball, while she wasn't scared of the girl, her social anxiety had not been cured on the airship over to Beacon.

"Look at this dust, you could have easily triggered an explosion!" As this girl was speaking and showing Ruby a small case of dust crystals Ruby started to remember who the symbol belonged to.

"Schnee." Ruby said it quietly but the girl still heard it.

"Yes, I am a Schnee what of it?" Ruby stiffened when she realised that the girl had heard her.

"Not just any Schnee though. You are Weiss Schnee, heiress to the whole of the Schnee dust company. Famous for being the biggest and most reliable supplier of the dust of the planet." The new voice startled both Weiss and Ruby. Due to the voice praising the company Weiss held her head higher and she held a smug smile on her face.

"Also the same company infamous for its awful working conditions for faunus." Weiss' head dropped at that with the smug grin disappearing from her face. Both she and Ruby looked at the source of the new voice.

"And who do you think you are to say all of that?" Weiss crossed her arms as she waited for a reply.

"Blake."


	12. An update in time

So...I was gone a little bit longer than I said I would be but I swear there was a good reason for it.

Firstly, after I finished my exams I discovered that I had to remain in the sixth form for an extra 2 weeks to complete the glorious and extremely sexy Welsh Baccaulaureat. Yeah, I thought I was done with that but turns out no, you have to give a presentation. (I could have chosen a sixth form in England but no I just had to pick a sixth form outside.

Secondly, I lost the will to right. I started thinking about my story more and more and I realised there was a lot of stuff that I didn't actually like, especially with the beginning. So I have decided to rewrite this series. I will leave this message up until I have done it and then it will be taken off (also all of the new chapters will be put up at once along with a new chapter).

I think that covers everything so I will see you guys in a bit.


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